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ELCA

The Lutheran Grinch Ponders His Evil Ways—or NOT!

grinch8Eight Years Locked Out of Church on Christmas Eve

and every other day, for that matter.

 

Every year for the last seven years, the Lutherans of East Falls—locked out of our own property by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod  (ELCA) in a budget-balancing land grab—checked in with the Lutheran Grinch to see if conscience had yet to kick in.

 

Year eight. An opportunity to do the right thing in a way that was right and feasible and perhaps in keeping with mission is now gone.

 

But Redeemer Whoville is still here! We’ll gather around the relics we saved from the church—not allowed by the synod but by the developer that purchased our land for a song.

 

The Grinch of Whoville was able to breach the wall between evil and good. That Grinch pondered the effects of his greed and changed his ways. He at last could stand with the people of Whoville and sing with joy and a growing heart. It’s supposed to make us think of the Christmas message if the Bible doesn’t hit home.

 

Neither is likely to happen in Lutheran Whoville.

 

There will be no reflection. The Lutheran Grinch sits on the hill overlooking their 150 or so congregations and never sees the people of their Whoville.

 

Reflection is not part of the popular “discernment” process. The need to win and save face stood in the way of reason and principle. There were no doctrinal differences, no issues requiring church discipline, no financial distress necessitating intervention. There was plenty of “fake” news—unsubstantiated stories about horrible things that simply were untrue. We were probably the fastest growing church in a synod where numbers are down in almost every congregation. The synod had ignored us since 1998, following their published strategy of ignoring small congregations for ten years to facilitate decline. They didn’t know anything about us in 2008. They cited 1990s statistics to the rest of the synod. We pointed out the “big lie.” No one was listening. No one was asking questions—nor were they encouraged to.

 

SEPA was successful in their land grab.  At what cost? Six years of lawsuits—during which the building deteriorated in appraisal value from $1.5 million to $350,000—ate up the coveted pie.

 

Leaders without a strategy, tend to rely on destruction to demonstrate power.

 

The long-term effects set an unhealthy precedent. Much needed innovation will not happen in congregations for fear of intervention.

 

SEPA’s tactic to sue individual church members should be very disturbing to all church leaders. A desire for safety and security clouds the sense of right/wrong.

 

CHURCH HISTORY—UNEXAMINED

In most historical contexts, there are people who look back at the decisions of leadership and measure the results to see if popular decisions ended up to be foolish or wise. Leaders with perceived mediocre promise (Harry Truman) end up wearing history’s halo. Popular leaders (Hitler) are condemned.

 

Churches don’t examine church history in the light of self-discovery or improvement. Did that pastor that everyone loved move the congregation forward or were those happy years the onset of decline? Were those lay people who raised questions trouble makers, or did their concerns prove to be valid?

 

The Redeemer decision—made with overwhelming acceptance of a synod assembly acting outside their constitutional powers—wise or even Christian? Only one church asked back then (Old Zion). None have asked since. It became Church at its worst, something akin to a Lutheran Hunger Games, with fluid rules and and tactics designed to inflict maximum damage.

 

The now eight-year-old decision that SEPA won in a weird way should give all Lutherans pause. The final court decision was that if the law were applied Redeemer’s arguments have merit, but the courts cannot enforce church law. In other words, Redeemer was right to challenge SEPA! SEPA’s actions were questionable. Our fellow Lutherans failed in their duty to provide the checks/balances.

 

Let’s look back at a few of the results of a power run unchecked.

 

ROOTS OF THE DECISION

SEPA Synod was routinely operating on a significant deficit budget. Closing churches in a way that guaranteed the assets went to the synod became a goal. Problem: it violates the founding agreement between the synods and congregations. Congregations have the right to vote on their future and to disperse property as the congregation wishes (within charitable guidelines). SEPA Synod usurps this right by invoking an unconstitutional tactic they call Involuntary Synodical Administration. This violates the agreement member congregations that joined the ELCA made only 27 years ago. The founding constitution allows for VOLUNTARY synodical administration, done with a vote of the congregation. But SEPA made up an INVOLUNTARY form to side-step congregational rights and take control of congregational assets. It is a form of theft. Even the wording: Taking the control of property and assets without the consent of the congregation and administering assets for the synod’s benefit is the definition of theft. Use fancy words. No one notices.

 

POTENTIAL IMPACT: Sooner or later, church leaders can expect to be challenged. This happened in East Falls. Christian beliefs and teachings ceased to matter. Winning mattered.

 

MISSION STRATEGY

The leadership theory that was published in a book by Bishop Claire Burkat a few years before she put it into practice in East Falls states that the best way to manage a struggling church is to close it for a few weeks, remove signage, and reopen under a new leadership with NONE of the existing members permitted to participate. Where did they get such nonsense?


Church leaders see things from a clergy point of view. When a pastor leaves a church, they are advised to stay out of their previous parish to avoid conflicts with new leadership. This theory does not transfer to church members. Church members still live in the community and church leaders are likely also to be community leaders. Banishing them is easier said than done. Interestingly, another such SEPA experiment in which the synod closed a church and took possession of congregational assets received acclaim in the early years. They reopened to great fanfare with 70 or so charter members. A few years later, the parish statistics reflected far fewer members. No fanfare about this. Reported success. Unmentioned failure.

 

All the theory obscures the real reasons to wish church members gone.

churchreplanters

 

UNFORESEEN IMPACT: Leaders fail to understand the value of land and tradition. They also fail to realize that in small churches, a lot of people are related by both blood and social circles. Scratch off a few problem lay members and you’ve riled a whole neighborhood. Working class East Falls residents sacrificed to provide prime real estate in our community to ensure a faith presence beyond their own lifetimes. They didn’t just build a shack. They invested their labor and wages to create beauty. Bishop Burkat’s attack on our congregation ended up predictably with the sale of the church. They sold it at least twice. An early sale was to a nonprofit that was willing to work with Redeemer members to establish Christian day school in the space they once owned. When the synod found out, they used tactics that would embarrass faithful Lutherans to regain rights to the property. Then they sold it to developers, of course. Urban land always has greater commercial value than monetary mission value. These developers were also willing to work with Redeemer members. Remember, we still live here! We were close to raising the money, but it was difficult. After all, SEPA took our endowment funds, too. We had only a few months and came very close. The land so carefully provided for mission in our community will be apartments. Our school has already been leveled for town houses. That’s the impact on Redeemer. For all regional Lutherans, it will be almost impossible to influence all of northwest Philadelphia (population 200,000+ and where SEPA is headquartered) will soon be next to impossible.

 

The loss to the community is even worse. The school we had planned is needed far more than five new houses. Our land as a cultural hub for many community groups is now gone and difficult to replace as available land in urban neighborhoods is now economically steep.

 

THE REALITY FOR URBAN LUTHERANS

Our experience is representative. Most of our members were life-long Lutherans—some in America, others from Africa. We remain Lutheran in a neighborhood where other Lutherans have been unkind. We are still active in our community and we speak up for our continued presence, our history and our traditions. We are learning a lot. We are seeing what the future of faith communities in urban neighborhoods are likely to look like. We learned we were dong a lot right. We were growing diverse in a natural, organic way. Our membership was young in a church body that is adopting a new liturgical color of gray. We would not have been growing had we followed the advice of church consultants. Their predictions made in the 1990s—that demographics did not favor mission—we now know were baloney.

 

Redeemer was here long enough to experience, understand, and be part of real societal change. During this time, the Lutheran church was unable to provide adequate leadership. The suburbs called. Redeemer, largely lay-led, worked through the problems. East Falls is now a melting pot of diversity. We have experience we could be sharing.

 

EAST FALLS and NW PHILADELPHIA TODAY

East Falls, along with neighboring communities of Manayunk, Wissahickon and Roxborough, are among the fastest growing neighborhoods in Philadelphia. They are also the youngest neighborhoods. SEPA’s leadership has positioned Lutherans to miss a true opportunity for long-term mission. The era of White Flight was a challenge! We turned the corner, partly because we stayed in the city. For the first time since the 1970s, people are finding urban neighborhoods attractive places to raise families. Redeemer would be in a position to be truly helpful as our neighborhood continues to transform. But SEPA administered our assets for their benefit.

 

The Lutheran Grinch still sits at the top or the hill in Northwest Philadelphia carefully waiting to sled down the hill and take as much as they can carry. Just three churches left. Probably not for long!

 

Maintaining Order in the Social Media Age

waveSMHow Will the Church Cope
in a World with No Boundaries?

Today’s Alban Weekly post points to a major challenge in the church. Rev. Adam Walker Cleaveland gives advice to pastors on how to manage their social media presence when they move from one parish to another.

 

What will pastors do with all their social media connections when they move from one parish to another?

 

Well, most of them aren’t very active online, but perhaps that will change.

 

You’d think the answer might be simple. They do what we all do when we move. Make new friends. Keep the old. Check in at Christmastime.

 

The few laity who happen across this article might be truly puzzled. They might be surprised to learn that pastors are actually taught to cut off relationships and ties to their past. Be hard-nosed about it. Do not make friends within your parish. Do not communicate with them when you leave. Make a clean break. That relationship you thought you had—it was all business.

Perhaps this is why church leaders so easily advise congregations to grieve and move on when they want to close churches. They have been taught an inhumane approach to ministry.

 

The practice comes from a day when pastoring was a family business. The spouse (wife) and children were part of parish culture and would follow the pastor (dad) wherever he went. The kids would change schools. The wife would clean and decorate the new parsonage and start attending women’s meetings.

 

The Church has always been asking for the impossible. The practice has caused more hardship—cruel hardship—than it will ever admit. But it is “the way” of the church—opposite in many ways to what the Church teaches.

 

But now it is a “way” that is no longer possible. The spouse works (husband or wife). The kids are going to stay connected whether or not the move disrupts their friendships. They didn’t attend those seminary classes that taught the church social order. They are not obligated to take orders.

 

The practice attempts to make life easier for the next pastor. That’s church culture. The pastor must be able to stand in the pulpit and look across a totally compliant and mindlessly happy congregation. When trouble breaks a congregant’s bubble, he or she must know who to call. No options.

 

Oh, and that trouble can never involve the pastor.

 

That’s the system. Like it or leave it.

 

A lot of people are leaving it!

 

The view is insulting to laity. We are not putty in pastoral hands, waiting for the next shepherd to dote upon our every need. There is trust and a regard, but not a total dependency.

This view fuels church conflict. When disagreements arise, the pastors must hang on to authority at every cost. It is the laity’s role to “give.”

 

Pastoral relationships often depend on dependency.

 

Dependency depends upon weakness.

 

And so the Church as an influence in our culture grows weaker.

Here in Southeast Pennsylvania in the ELCA, we’ve seen our entire denomination fostering dependence. We come from a tradition that honors the contributions of both laity and clergy as equals. That’s the theory anyway.

Reality: Congregations are expected to comply with synodical wishes. If they don’t, the laity are labeled. Disrespectful. Adversarial. Resistant. We need only question. We don’t even have to disagree!

 

This synodical view is bound to trickle down. If a bishop expects compliance, so too can a pastor.

 

All these decades or centuries of fostering dependent relationships are now rising up, gathering the force of a tsunami.

The tsunami called Social Media.

Pastor Cleaveland admits that Social Media is not a fad. It must be reckoned with. In typical pastoral thinking, he gives a “to do” list to keep things “under control.”

 

Odd. The power of Social Media to influence and expand the work of the church is enormous, and pastors focus on how it affects THEM.

  • Break your Social Media connections into lists that you can control.
  • Be sparing about your “likes.” Make sure there is a way for to disconnect from the people you were once eager to please. Find a gentle way to “unfriend” them. (The dangers of the “like” culture of social media are why we recommend blogging to Facebook, etc., by the way.)
  • Remember, this is for their own good. You are helping them grieve the loss of your influence in their lives.

Narcissistic? Just a little!

 

Really, pastors. It is quite simple to explain to your parish that you love them and will always love them. If there were problems, apologize. Mean it. Tell them that you will check into the church website from time to time. Let it go at that.

 

Don’t tell them that the reason you don’t “like” them anymore is because you are being paid to “like” someone else now.

 

All those needy people you are leaving behind will find others to love them and to love. It may be the new pastor. It may not! You won’t be able to control that.

 

Love is like that. You can’t corral it as much as the Church might try.

photo credit: Sunova Surfboards via photopin cc

2×2/Redeemer Reaches Around the World

relief12×2 Relief Boxes Reach Pakistan

The story of Redeemer, 2×2 and the Church in Pakistan is remarkable.

Church leaders told us we were too small to fulfill a mission purpose. They were wrong. Small churches can contribute in big ways!

relief16

Even after church leaders took our building and our endowment funds, Redeemer kept on with our mission. We took it online.

The 2×2 website launched February 2, 2011. It wasn’t long before we were making mission friends all over the world. There are many amazing stories of mission collaboration that resulted. For now, we’ll focus on our friendship with the church in Pakistan.

2×2 was corresponding with church leaders in Pakistan for more than a year when terrorists bombs exploded killing hundreds of worshipers.

relief6They asked us to send a study Bible. We did. It was a small investment to test the water. They never got it. We weren’t sure we would ever be able to help outside of our online friendship. Too expensive. Too risky.

But then we saw the news of a church bombing in Pakistan featured ever so briefly on national media. We emailed asking if they were alright. The response came quickly. They were in hiding. There was no way of knowing if the violence had stopped. Many were killed (more than 200) and the injuries of those that survived were serious. They feared that Muslim hospitals would not provide adequate care to Christian patients. They were trying to care for serious injuries themselves. Many children were orphaned. They felt abandoned by the world.

Loyal Lutherans, we started to look for ways to help. We never voted to leave the ELCA, but the ELCA no longer recognized us. There was no one to call. SEPA Synod hadn’t returned our calls for years!

The ELCA divides the world and assigns each synod a region to support in mission. It is called the Companion Synod System. We checked the roster of companion synods with whom we might network. We learned the Middle East is largely overlooked. We looked up Lutheran World Relief. Their website showed no connection with Pakistan.

We asked Pakistani leaders what was needed. They were desperate for warm clothing for the children. They were preparing for a brutal winter.

relief3This would have been easy for Redeemer. Our church had lots of children. We would have had no problem collecting clothing. But our eviction, which forced the closing of a decades-old daycare center, had cost us access to families and hand-me-downs. We feared we could not help.

But we didn’t give up. We posted the need on our website. We got a few monetary donations and sent them to Pakistan. It took five trips to the bank to get the money transferred. It is difficult to wire money to Pakistan, the bank told us. But they did get what we sent this time!

We wanted to do more. There was practically no interest among western Christians about this horrific attack on people of our faith!

A subscriber to 2×2 called one day. I mentioned the need for clothing. She took the ball and ran.

relief8Keep in in mind that the fabricated reason for closing Redeemer was that our congregation was scattered and diminished. This was not true, but what happened next is proof that even if it were true, that phrase, so easily bandied about by professional church leaders, is no longer a valid way to measure ministry.

The 2×2 readers who went to work collecting clothing were in Michigan. Here in Philadelphia, we collected money.

Michigan 2×2 soon reported that they had filled an SUV with clothing.

They sorted, laundered and packed three large boxes of clothing and blankets. The next hurdle—shipping.

relief9Commercial shippers wanted $1500 to ship 62 pounds of clothing. We didn’t have $1500. We feared that all our work was for nothing. We shared our problems with the Pakistanis. “If we had $1500, we could buy the clothes we need,” they said.

But Michigan 2x2ers didn’t give up. They are close to Detroit. One of their business connections ships auto parts all over the world. They agreed to send our boxes. They wanted just $300. The money collected in Philadelphia would cover it!

PakistanShipmentThe boxes shipped shortly after Thanksgiving. They arrived in Pakistan the day before Christmas.

relief15Pakistani leaders documented the distribution with many pictures. Here are a few photos of the children receiving their warm winter clothing and blankets.

There are a few lessons to be learned from our experience.

  • Even the smallest churches can fulfill mission purposes.
  • There is no need for small churches to depend solely on regional or churchwide entities to do mission for them.
  • The strength of the church as we move into the connected age will be in the networks each congregation builds. This can be done on a shoestring budget. Amazing things can be done without hierarchical oversight.
  • The networks built need not be constrained by geography.
  • The gratification and sense of accomplishment of doing mission directly is greater and has more potential for involving lay people in hands-on ways than the current system.
    By the way, the region of the world that is assigned to SEPA under the ELCA Companion Synod System is Tanzania. Irony! While SEPA supports the church in Tanzania, SEPA evicted a congregation of mostly Tanzanian immigrants and cut them off from participation in their church here in the United States. One SEPA argument was that to reach out to East Africa immigrants, Redeemer had to first accept mission status. We knew that meant giving up property rights. It is  a greedy strategy devised to make all properties owned for decades or even centuries by  neighborhood congregations the property of the synod. The new populations of urban neighborhoods are seen as incapable of administering their own Christian community. If this sounds like it might be racist, make no mistake—it is. It is subtly returning to a dependency system that America worked hard to break away from.

We’ll share other amazing stories of international ministry resulting from our website in our annual report. It’s that time year!

relief2

Lutherans Who Care. Are there any?

Light one candle to watch for Messiah . . . .

I was touched by the story shared by a Redeemer family on Sunday. They reported that their family visited our church and placed a candle at the steps to the locked doors on Christmas Eve. It was our fifth Christmas Eve locked out of God’s house.

Light one candle to watch for Messiah . . . .

East Falls Lutherans are faithful. It is sad that our devotion and passion for mission and church is lost on a denomination that just doesn’t care about congregations and communities beyond their own comfort.

It is even sadder that our successful ministries could be benefiting the whole church, if we weren’t being shunned.

These particular members have suffered severely at the hands of SEPA Synod. Still they are loyal and hopeful leaders of Redeemer and 2×2.

We’ve waited five years for Lutherans to demonstrate compassion for our church.

The ELCA is only as good as it treats its own.

We’ll light more candles.

There is always hope.

SEPA Asks Some Good Questions

Here’s Redeemer’s Answer

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is launching a new fund-raising appeal to member congregations.

It is called “It Takes All the Saints.”

Giving is down.

Under ELCA structure no congregation is required to give. We are not hierarchical, but are united for common mission. There may be many reasons why congregations do not support the regional body as they once did.

The evaluation of that mission is a right of congregations. If congregations are to part with resources, there must be clear benefits.

When a church sends less or sends nothing, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that the congregation is failing.

The congregation may simply be practicing stewardship.

Congregations may realize that in this great, new, networked world, they have choices. Giving to the regional body is a choice. The answer for many is that the support of a regional office is not “good use of the Lord’s money. ”

The words in quotes were once used by a Synod representative with Redeemer in East Falls. “Ministry in East Falls is not good use of the Lord’s money.” This is a convenient euphemism. When you view resources as belonging to the Lord, claiming them for yourself seems less like stealing.

Congregations may withhold money to express concern about the direction of the Church. For example, many churches stopped giving because of the theological objections in the interpretation of sexual policies. The Church heard that.

When the issues are more subtle and closer to home, there is a disconnect. Congregations may stop giving when they see no benefit or services. When the regional body claims managerial authority, there is little liklihood that this will be viewed as having anything to do with them.

The insatiable need for more money for “the Lord’s work” is always upon us. Problems occur when the regional and national bodies see their work as more important than that of the congregations. This creates hierarchy where none was intended.

Lutheran constitutions addressed this early on. However, in recent years they have been tweaked to mean the opposite of the promises made to congregations in 1987 and 1988 when the ELCA was soliciting members.

Synods were not intended to have management control of congregational assets. Now they do. Every congregation MUST realize this. They can no longer use their offerings to send a message. The risks are too high. This is a problem no one wants to address.

Here is SEPA’s pitch for their latest fund-raiser. It is excerpted from their website, MinistryLink.

Has your congregation called a pastor or sponsored a member through candidacy? Have you been engaged with one of our new missions or had an evangelism consult with one of our coaches? Have you been blessed by global connections with Tanzania, SEKOMU, and our missionaries, the MacPhersons? Did you send junior or senior high youth to our annual youth gatherings? Have you downloaded documents from our updated MinistryLink.org website? Are you presently serving on one of the more than 40 ministry teams and networks — including the Faith Formation team, Tanzania Partnership team, Stewardship Resource Team, Transformational Ministry team and so many more – active in our Synod right now. Have you called the synod office with a question, and received an answer? None of these services would be available without synod staff, contracted experts, and many dedicated volunteers who spend hours planning programs, producing resources and being present with the leaders and congregations of our Synod.

Having asked these questions, SEPA needs to hear the answers—from each congregation. The answers will tell them whether they are using “the Lord’s money” wisely. If they are not, “the Lord’s money” may be better invested elsewhere.

Here are Redeemer’s answers.

Has your congregation called a pastor . . . ?

Redeemer attempted to call a pastor through the synod office several times.

  • In 1997, we signed an 18-month interim agreement with Pastor Robert Matthias. Bishop Almquist broke the contract after three months and supplied no one to replace him for more than a year.
  • In 2000, we encountered a “take who I recommend or else” ultimatum from Bishop Almquist.
  • In 2006, our pastor of close to two years had a private meeting with newly elected Bishop Burkat. He gave us ten days notice (not the constitutional 30) and left the synod after a private meeting with the bishop’s office. Synod lifted no finger to help Redeemer find a replacement ever again. Refusing to supply pastoral leadership (SEPA’s constitutional purpose) was a means to the desired end of acquiring property and assets.
  • In 2007, we presented a resolution to Bishop Burkat to call a pastor with whom we had been successfully working for seven months. Terms had been negotiated. The candidate was qualified. All we sought was SEPA approval. This pastor disappeared after a private meeting with the bishop’s office.

Have you been engaged with one of our new missions or had an evangelism consult with one of our coaches?

Redeemer was having great success with an outreach to Tanzanians in our neighborhood who were coming here to attend schools and making new lives in America. Our attempts to work with SEPA’s mission office were rebuffed. Numerous calls went unreturned. The national office noticed our ministry and asked for a report, which we sent to Chicago. When a SEPA mission director at last responded, he offered this excuse. “It doesn’t matter what you do. The bishop intends to close your church.” On November 1, 2007, Bishop Burkat promised that we could work with the new Mission Director. She broke this promise.

Have we been blessed by global connections with Tanzania?

YES! But not through SEPA! About 60 Tanzanians joined Redeemer between 2000 and 2007. Yet when SEPA reported our membership to Synod Assembly, they weren’t counted. Synod Assembly was told we had only 13 members. The first judges in court were told this too. By the time SEPA started chasing our individual members in court, SEPA was holding Redeemer accountable for a voting membership of more than 70.

This led one of our young members to quip, “The Synod is big on Tanzania, as long as we Tanzanians stay in Tanzania.”

Redeemer is now supporting several mission efforts all over the world. We do this with no budget.

Did you send youth to annual youth gatherings?

No. We sent our youth and families to Lutheran Church camp. It was a better choice for children of immigrants who were learning about America and it was helping grow our congregation and our leadership. This stopped when SEPA took our money.

Have you downloaded documents from our updated MinistryLink.org website?

No.

Are you serving on ministry teams?

No. We have been excluded from all SEPA activities. However, we’ve created our own ministry teams that are amazingly effective.

Have you called the synod office with a question?

Yes. We called and wrote numerous times between 2006 and 2008 and received NO response.

Given this track record (which we hear in our Ambassador visits is not unique) it is no wonder that congregations think twice about where their offerings are best used. With new powers assumed by the Synod, they are risking more than they agreed to when they signed up for the ELCA.

What Redeemer continues to discover is that a congregation’s strength today is in its own network-building—not in the networks crafted by the regional or national body.

Perhaps the reason denominational giving is down is that congregations are realizing their offerings are best spent where they can make sure they are working, where there is transparency and accountability every day, and where they can individually evaluate success. That’s always been the Lutheran way.

Mission DOES take all the saints.

As for Redeemer  . . . we’ve given all we’ve got. Literally! It still is not enough for SEPA.

Again, when you view congregations as keepers of “the Lord’s money,” it feels a little less like stealing when you claim it for yourself.

Overcoming the “We Can’t” Mindset

IMG_20131202_164209_598We think you can’t. We think you can’t.

Every little church knows the litany. It’s the Church’s own version of the The Little Engine That Could. It’s called The Little Church That Can’t.

  • “You can’t afford a pastor.”
  • “You are too small to fulfill your mission.”

Sometimes the two statements mean the same thing. At some point, affording a pastor becomes the mission.

The list grows.

  • “The demographics don’t support ministry.”
  • “Every church has a time to die.”
  • Etcetera. Etcetera. Etcetera.

Small churches don’t get much help in overcoming objections, especially when their property and endowments are up for grabs. We forget that the biblical model of “church” always worked at overcoming objections far worse. Remember, it was actually illegal to be a Christian way back when and still the Church grew.

It’s not just the little churches that get trapped by this frame of mind. The whole church embraces it. The erroneous belief is that small churches need bigger entities to fulfill mission.

There may have been a day when this was true or at least more true than today. But the world is changing. It is time we all sit up and take notice.

This is good news for small churches. Small churches can play a huge role in the life of the church.

Here is 2×2’s most recent experience.

2x2virtualchurch.com was started two and one half years ago by Redeemer Lutheran Church in East Falls when our denomination locked us out of our property. About 18 months ago we began an online friendship with the Christian Church in Pakistan.

We were amazed that our friendship resulted in facilitating a meeting of Christians from Pakistan and Kenya earlier this year.

We were already in strong conversation when a Pakistani Church was bombed by terrorists in September 2013. We checked on our friends. They were not directly affected but they were close to those who were. They were in hiding behind locked doors.

As weeks passed, we heard firsthand accounts of the devastation and terror. We were sent photos of the prayer vigils. For the first time, the Pakistan Church asked for help.

How could a little shunned church like Redeemer respond?

We looked to see if the ELCA had a mechanism for help. (We never voted to leave the ELCA. They kicked us out.)

We found none in the companion synod system or on the Lutheran World Relief website. We heard no mention of the tragedy in Lutheran churches or in The Lutheran magazine.

The Pakistani Church told us their biggest need was winter clothing for the many orphans that resulted from the terrorist attack.

Redeemer had many children, but the persecution of our church has hurt our network among families with children that could donate clothing.

We mentioned the need on our virtual church website.

Readers in Michigan picked up the ball and ran. They said “Just call us 2×2 Michigan.”

They gathered three large boxes of clothing.

Then came the next hurdle. Shipping costs were $1500. We were all discouraged. But a 2×2 reader mentioned the need to a business associate that ships products all over the world. They offered to help.

So this week, only a month after the need was made known, 2×2 shipped boxes of children’s clothing to Christians in Pakistan.

That’s a place where it is even harder to be a Christian than East Falls!

The modern church will be built on the reliance of member networks more than denominational networks. This is a power waiting to be unleashed.

We think we can. We think we can. And we can! 2×2.

God is doing something new, indeed!

8 Lessons Learned by David Fighting Goliath

This is part 2 of yesterday’s post about Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants.

Yesterday, we pointed to Gladwell’s observation that true innovation comes from the Davids who fight established practices and wisdom. We promised examples from our experience today.

Ironically, the lessons we learned in our feud with the established church correlate with today’s post of the Alban Institute.

The post by Sarai Rice answers a frequently asked question. What are the emerging trends in the church?

Here are her answers with our corroborating experience.

1. A congregation’s identity does not equal its building.

Lutherans teach “the church is not a building.” This is not the only thing we teach that we do not believe!

Buildings are tools for ministry. Their financial demands can also impede ministry.

Our denomination desperately uses property as a weapon. Give to the regional body the way we expect you to give, or we will take your building off your hands.

This is in total violation of Lutheran polity. However, it is hoped that congregations will lack the will to fight.

People don’t go to church to fight, however righteous. Most Davids flee at the sign of trouble.

Our property was modest but had appreciated in an upscale Philadelphia neighborhood. That should be good news for the congregation. We had equity.

We planned a renovation project that would put our educational building to work in mission and which would provide a healthy income to support ministry.

But our equity was coveted by our denomination — not to benefit the neighborhood that provided it but to benefit SEPA Synod and its recurring budget shortfalls — (still a problem by the way).

Without our property, Redeemer was expected to disappear. Easy pickings.

Taking our building was supposed to be the nail in our coffin.

But Redeemer turned to home churches and after a year reached an agreement with a neighborhood ally for rent-free space. This had the benefit of strengthening our neighborhood ties.

We took our ministry online and learned a great deal about a medium that all churches should use, but almost none are. While our own doors are locked to us, doors opened all over the world.

With our experience in this new realm of ministry we would be in very good shape to conduct our own ministry in our own building for the benefit of the whole denomination.

But Goliath knows best.

We would add a Part B to this point.

A congregation’s identity does not equal its pastor.

This is somewhat covered in Rice’s next point.

2. Pastor does not equal a full-time position.

SEPA Synod seemed to be unable to work with our congregation without a pastor of their choosing in control. This too goes against Lutheran polity. The congregation is supposed to be part of the call process, but small churches are often given few or poor choices.

This expectation drains ministry. Valuable resources are spent on professional help who have little invested in the actual work.

Redeemer was told in 2000 that we had to accept the pastor SEPA wanted us to call or there would be no pastor for a very long time. The pastor they were recommending was upfront. He wanted to provide minimal service—just ten hours per week, just enough to keep his ordination status and benefits active. He would be happy. SEPA would be happy. Under the rules of a regularized call, Redeemer would be endlessly obligated with no promise of benefit.

Wisely, Redeemer turned down this ultimatum. But SEPA required THREE divisive votes before they stepped away from their demand. SEPA walked away. We were supposed to wither on the vine. Bishop Almquist even said, “In ten years, you will die a natural death.”

We found qualified pastors on our own and managed to grow.

In 2007, we presented a resolution to call one of them. We had worked well together for seven months. He had overseen the acceptance of 49 new members. Bishop Claire Burkat did not respond to our resolution. She met privately with the pastor and he never set foot in our church again.

3. Resourcing happens via drop-down menus rather than denominational staff.

The internet is a treasure that can be used by anyone.  “Even small congregations in remote communities know how to use search engines for everything from conflict management to curriculum choices,” Rice writes.

In other words, congregations don’t need to allocate great resources for help from the regional body. Regional bodies can and should downsize. This goes against our bigger is better thinking.

4. Group participation does not equal my congregation’s group.

Church members are loyal but not exclusive. Shunned by our own denomination Redeemer formed relations around the world. The amazing thing is that they have become intertwined. Denomination is never discussed.

Pakistan, Kenya, Sweden, Nigeria, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Boston have worked together in amazing ministry because they met us via our website. (None, except perhaps Redeemer, is ELCA!).

5. Worship does not equal Sunday morning.

Redeemer often meets on Sunday morning, but we also find reason to meet during the week.

6. Small groups and faith formation does not equal Sunday School in church buildings.

Redeemer follows the “meetup” concept. We have no place of our own but meet in homes, restaurants, trips, and theaters—even occasional bars.

7. Active membership does not equal weekly attendance.

Redeemer members stay in touch. We don’t have a church in which to take attendance, but we know that we have nearly 1000 people who read our website every week and participate in our various outreach endeavors. Our reach is broader than any other church in SEPA Synod that has a building.

We would add an eighth point to Sarai Rice’s observations.

8. Income does not equal offering plate.

Redeemer found ourselves suddenly with no church in which to worship and no offering plate to pass. Without a building or a pastor, we had little need to take offerings. But there were these pesky lawsuits (funded against us with our own money!). SEPA also threatened our members’ personal property. Money remained an issue. This is leading us down a new road to self-sufficiency. There is great promise in funding Lutheran ministry in East Falls with a combination of our school and a  mission outreach with entrepreneurial potential. We’ve laid good groundwork!

Should SEPA ever rightfully return East Falls property to East Falls Lutherans, they would soon have a viable flagship church where they have created strife.

From Whence Cometh Church Innovation

Why Transformation in the ELCA Is Unlikely

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SEPA / ELCA) recently posted a link on its Facebook page from a Methodist Conference that discussed the role of clergy in church transformation.

It referenced the work of Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations. His work studied innovation in farming.

Rogers found the implementers of new ideas broke into the following categories:

  • 2.5% were Innovators. They were educated, had means and were risk-oriented.
  • Early Adopters followed them. They were young, educated and community leaders.
  • Then came the Early Majority. They were conservative but open to new ideas.
  • The Late Majority were older, less educated, conservative and less socially active.
  • Laggards were very conservative had the smallest farms and little capital.

The article argued that clergy could not be effective innovators within their parish role. They place the clergy somewhere between early adopters and the effective implementation that follows.

innovation-700x386Perhaps this is true within Methodist circles.

The Lutheran Bell Curve would probably find clergy at the other end of the spectrum. It is probably a disproportionate number, eating into the hump of the Bell Curve.

innovation2-700x386

  • Lutheran clergy, at least in our area, are older.
  • Lutheran churches in our area are smaller.
  • Lutheran leaders at every level are desperate for capital. That equity should be a tool for the congregation’s use, but regional bodies covet it.
  • Lutheran clergy, by some measure, are less socially active. (Search Lutheran clergy on LinkedIn and see how many are connected and how many of them post their profiles publicly.)
  • Lutheran clergy are becoming increasingly enamored with and dependent upon hierarchy which makes them less likely to explore risk. Innovation without risk is unlikely.

Given these factors, the Lutheran Church will lag in innovation if we depend on professional leaders. Clergy already turn to laity for implementation of most church work. But the control reins hold them back.

Add a few other factors. Lutheran regional leadership, desperate for capital, hover over member congregations waiting for signs of failure. The incentive to assist with innovation is not there. Innovation takes capital! Most of that capital tends to go toward salaries with inconsequential accountability.

Caretaker and part-time ministries rarely lead to innovation but they abound. Pastors inclined toward innovation must be careful. Would-be innovators do so in an unfair arena where leadership is protected by separation of church and state and lay innovators accept personal risk. They may not know it! Ask the laity of Redeemer in East Falls who were named personally in lawsuits by SEPA Synod, while the actions of clergy were protected under separation of church and state.

Laity step up when caretaker ministries are in place, but their leadership is often unappreciated by clergy, who even with part-time status want full-time oversight and credit for success. Failure? The laity can take the credit for that!

Beware! Laity inclined toward innovation do so at their own risk. They may even risk the mission of the church if their leadership threatens the perceived turf of professional leaders.

Yet transformation is not going to happen without a fully empowered laity.

Dedicated laity bring skills to the table that the church desperately needs. When they go unappreciated or are seen as threatening, innovation is squashed.

Laggards swim in the wake. They see the opportunity to sustain things as they are by seizing property, capital and equity.

Consequently, transformation will not happen any time soon. Talk won’t get you there! Visibly aligning with the few charismatic rising stars among the clergy won’t work either. Feature them at Synod Assemblies and Bishop’s Convocations and hope their energy fuels a local movement. Will it catch on without an infrastructure to support it? Not likely. Looks good, though!

This is 2×2’s (Redeemer’s) experience in the ELCA.
Our ministry was already getting attention for innovation back in 2006.
Enter SEPA Synod with its recurring six-figure annual deficit, legal team and locksmith.
SPLAT!

The Lutheran Church desperately needs to empower the laity. They just don’t know how.

Lutheran Interdependence, Unfair Competition…

and Why the ELCA Is Doomed

The ELCA has a unique structure. The foundation (with Christ as cornerstone) is the local congregation. The local congregation is somewhat autonomous as long as it remains faithful to doctrine.

Then there is the regional body. It exists to serve the local congregations.

Last there is the church wide body (think national). They, too, serve the local congregations as facilitators of mission that was once impossible for local congregations to do individually—things like world missions, professional leadership education, the development of congregational resources and representing the denomination in interchurch and secular relations.

Lutheran structure is not supposed to be hierarchical. That’s one reason (up until the ELCA) Lutheran leaders were called presidents and not bishops — and clergy are addressed as Pastor (shepherd) more often than Reverend and never as Father.

The entire structure is funded by congregations.

Bottom up — not top down!

Bottom to top funding has created a dependence manifested in a sense of entitlement. The synods and national church want their allowance—even though no congregation is required to support them! This is reinforced by popular awareness of more hierarchical structures of the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Churches.

Maintaining the strength of congregations was once so important that synods were constitutionally forbidden to own property. Their role was to facilitate and serve, not to accumulate wealth and influence or to manage neighborhood ministry. These were temptations that early church leaders wisely guarded against.

The model constitution presented to ELCA congregations in 1987 and 1988 preserved this relationship. Individual congregational property could not be touched by regional offices or national offices without the consent of the congregation. Bylaws have tweaked away at this, but it is preserved in the founding Articles of Incorporation, which no one bothers to read, but which are legally the dominant documents.

The road to self-destruction

Constitutional changes made for convenience have put us on a road to self-destruction. The hierarchy, meant to serve, is using pooled resources for its own benefit above that of the congregations.

The regional and national church and their agencies have used offerings sent from the local churches to hire professional development staff. Most church agencies have someone paid to ask for money. They wine and dine wealthier Lutherans with promises to maximize their estate gifts for the betterment of mission. The reward: publicity and recognition. Perhaps a room in a seminary will bear their names for a few hundred years.

So much more enticing than a pew or window!

The national expression looks for estate gifts. So does the regional church. So do the seminaries, camps and social service agencies. With our pooled offerings, they can afford the websites, printed resources and personnel to pull this off.

Few congregations can compete individually with the offices they jointly fund.

Congregations can no longer expect estate giving.

It doesn’t help when regional synods exercise their own form of eminent domain and seize congregational assets when money runs low. They bet that local members don’t have the resources or the will to fight them and their pooled resources. They also correctly assume that a sufficient number of Lutherans are unaware of the polity of their faith. Any congregation that protests goes up against a national and regional legal team—funded by the offerings of the congregations but acting almost exclusively on behalf of the national and regional expressions. Volunteers vs professionals paid with the offerings of the volunteers!

In other words, they can get away with it.

Secular courts want no part of sorting this out.

Consequently, congregations are not likely to get estate gifts from members when donors can’t be sure their gifts are going where they wish. The weekly offering plate suffers. This hurts the whole church. Lutheran structure relies on the strength of local congregations.

All those gifts raised by professional fund-raisers won’t be worth much at the current rate of congregational failure. This is starting to become evident. Seminaries are struggling to find students. Career pastors are becoming rare as second-career and part-timers grow in numbers. Lutheran social service agencies abandon their mission message to court government funding. Everyone wants a piece of a smaller pie!

Redeemer received an estate gift of more than $300,000 in 1988 just as the ELCA was forming. It had benefited from many membership estate gifts over the years but this major gift gave us new security and mission promise. Unfortunately, it was eyed by other Lutherans from the get-go—first by a Lutheran retirement home. Paul’s Run claimed our member’s money even though our member never moved in. Ten years later Bishop Almquist took $90,000 from our bank account without our knowledge or consent. Redeemer had to defend its rights repeatedly—which was never fair.

This strained relationship gave Bishop Burkat the notion that she should try again. She couldn’t move fast enough. SEPA was within $75,000 of depleting every available resource. Little Redeemer had more money than SEPA.

Redeemer’s experience is mirrored in other synods with mixed results.

One congregation attempted to talk with their synod. They were told that the synod could not engage in conversation when there was a possibility that things might end up in court.

So much for mutual discernment!

Every hierarchical win is a Lutheran loss. The structure that is supposed to be our strength has everyone looking out for themselves.

Take a look at your congregational memorial giving. How has it changed in the last 25 years of ELCA governance? What can you do about it?

Redeemer is working at creating a ministry platform that will rely on mission success and not on offerings.

A Valuable Post for Church People

Today 2×2 references Seth Godin’s blog offering for today,
Bullying Is Theft.

Seth writes about bullying—something all church people are against in theory but often fail to recognize in practice. That’s how bullies thrive!

As Seth points out, good bullies have a knack for dehumanizing their targets. Victims’ cries, protests, and pleas cannot be heard. They are kooks and malcontents. “We have to trust the wisdom of our leaders” is the defense—even if it makes no sense. There is something (usually unnamed) very wrong with victims. They deserve what they are getting.

“Why don’t they accept things and move on?” is the easy question which is designed to justify their “moving on.” They count on people buckling under threats. Wounds may never heal but at least the damaged goods are out of the way. Bullies have a pretty good system!

2×2 has written about this before. Church people have a difficult time discerning that this is a topic that might include them. Ironically, the Church occasionally gives workshops about bullying, failing to see the characteristics among their own.

Bullying behavior in the church is wrapped up in a beautiful package of tradition, status and carefully chosen quotations from scripture to camouflage the ugliness. Hard to see. Hard to argue. Hard to stop.

Ask the hundreds of victims of clergy pedophilia. It took decades to bring the perpetrators to justice. The victims suffered the whole time, desperate for the people they trusted to take action on their behalf.

Bullying behavior reaches beyond this abominable reality. It permeates church structure, silencing the innovators and creatives —limiting them to acceptable creativity (good organ music). Even the Lutheran church with its proud heritage of sainthood and equality of all believers loses its way. If those who recognize the bullying move on, as even Seth suggests is one solution, the church is the loser. Congregations become similar in scope, style and service. Only the names and faces change. New people. Old roles.

Sound familiar?

Perhaps the church should calculate the cost of failing to deal with bullying in the church. Seth’s arguments are persuasive in this regard. It may very well be the root cause of mainline decline. Bullying in the church thins the ranks of the creative—the thinkers, the questioners, the givers, the risk-takers (which every organization needs!). It is theft!

Read Seth’s post today and ask, “Have our church leaders treated member churches this way?”

And then read Showdown on Midvale Avenue and a related post.